Welcome back to Future Tuesday, where we take a look at releases further down the line. Last week, we talked about February’s ship expansion, containing new Bombers for every faction. Today, we’re going to talk a little bit about our “Season” format, and what to expect when Season 2 of Star Strike kicks off later this year!
Each expandable game we build here at Cage Free Games follows our Season model. Unlike other design studios, we build our seasons around accomplishing new and better game states for each game. Season 1 for any game is the bedrock of the game, giving a good selection of customization to your “Fleet/Army/Deck List”. In addition, Season 1 for any game introduces the core gameplay formats.
Additional Seasons should strive to introduce new mechanics, new gameplay options, and new list building options, presenting a minimum of 3 new major game elements. For Admirals: Star Strike, Season 2’s highlights will include:
- Battleships (or comparable) for each of the 4 factions
- “Hero” ships
- Co-Op/Solo Gameplay capability
Let’s take a quick look at what each of these new pieces of Admirals: Star Strike will bring to your gaming table:
Battleships
If you’ve followed Future Tuesday, you might remember the Valkyrie-class Battleship we teased for Planetary Accords players. Now the Space Sharks get their turn with the gargantuan SW-GWS! While we don’t have much to share with you on these massive vessels yet, you can look up the Common Rule “Massive” in your Core Rulebook for a taste of how durable these monstrous vessels will be:
Massive [B-xxx]
When assigning orders, you may assign a Basic Order with card ID [B-xxx] to it in addition to any other orders. This Ship cannot be Crippled. If this Ship would suffer a Critical Hit that would cause it to become Crippled, it suffers 2 Direct Hits instead.
Hero Ships
As we move from Season 1 into Season 2, there will be a number of Plot threads introduced that will hint at the contents of Season 3 (and provide some potential clues as to the origin of the Grandis galaxy itself). While you can experience these plots directly with Historic Play missions, Season 2 will also introduce Hero ships to the game.
Heroes ships can’t receive orders, but instead keep their Hero card attached for the duration of the game. This card grants order-like abilities to the ship, but more importantly, it gives you (and your opponent) a new way to earn Objective Points and win the game!
Each Hero has a Mission that their owning player can complete in order to earn Objective points. The ASV Ranger (First of her class), for instance, is tasked with searching for information on the ancient Psiarian race. Psiarian stations have been found in deep space nearby habitable systems, so the Ranger’s mission involves searching hexes adjacent to Star System hexes.
Conversely, Hero ships and their missions are top priorities for their factions. Should the Hero be forced to disengage (IE, the ship is defeated), your opponent will score Objective Points instead!
Co-Op and Solo play
Inspired by games such as Blackstone Fortress and Star Trek Alliance, Season 2 of Admirals: Star Strike will include “AI” opponent cards to play against. These generally will be designed to represent forces not specifically under a single command, dropping Orders for Combat Doctrines. These Doctrines represent the training of each faction, meaning each AI opponent will behave differently and present a new, unique challenge. These AI opponents can be used to play games solo, or can be tackled in massive Battle Line games with a friend.
You can expect Season 2 of Star Strike to begin in the second quarter of 2022. If you’re itching for some starship combat right now, grab a friend, print up a Cadet Pack (or grab all of Season 1 released so far through our Patreon!), and get started blowing things up in the Grandis Galaxy!